Maybe triggering – please take care…

Last night saw the inspirational, sensitive and excellent documentary aired on Channel 4 – ‘Stranger on the Bridge’. It told the story of how Jonny Benjamin, after a huge hunt found the stranger who helped him on Waterloo Bridge one morning when he planned to take his own life.  

I would recommend people watching this if they haven’t already as it was brilliantly put together and as someone who has lost a friend to suicide and have been suicidal myself I found it very helpful.  It was though very moving and could also be hugely triggering so please take care if you are fragile at present.

I thought that the whole story gave a very powerful message in the fight against Mental Health Stigma.  This is something that is very close to my heart and when I am well I do my best to talk about mental health and try and break down some of the misconceptions and challenge stigma that I come across in my day to day life.  Normally the stigma which I challenge is amongst people I have met before and more about helping people to realise that talking about mental health is ok and can be so positive for all concerned.  

One thing I have tried not to do is challenge the huge ‘celebrity’ (I use this term loosely) voices that seem to take great delight in doing whatever they can to damage those with mental health illnesses further.  I am acutely aware that these people thrive and feed on publicity of any kind and probably sadly make their money by causing hurt and upset to many vulnerable people. I was though angered by a certain tweet regarding the ‘Stranger on the Bridge’ programme and felt I needed to challenge this.  

I decided to tweet a reply but to an employer of the person concerned and whilst this hasn’t had a huge impact an online paper did write an article on the subject and quoted my tweet in their article.  This made me sit up and think and remind me that we do have a voice even when others seem to do what they can to destroy this. 

So today I have talked to others about suicidal thoughts, explained what this is like for me and let more people in to some quite difficult experiences from my past.  In return I have felt comforted by the responses I received and buoyed by people’s understanding and in some cases a change of view point.  

It also made me realise that the simplest of acts can sometimes have the biggest impact – just like the stranger on that bridge……